


3+1; Birthday Mercies

by EtherealDeimos



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, also please dont judge my line of german i dont speak it, constructive criticism welcomed, happy birthday neil josten, i tagged Andreil but like theres just a lil bit at the end, if yall have better title ideas hit me, ill rewrite eventually i just wanted to get something out, it can be romantic or platonic, please enjoy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:53:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22326643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EtherealDeimos/pseuds/EtherealDeimos
Summary: a look at neil josten's birthdays, when he was and wasn't the man we know today
Relationships: Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 7
Kudos: 34





	3+1; Birthday Mercies

Nathaniel was a walking damnation, and walking a damnation did not have a birthday.  
He knew that other kids, normal kids, children without crime lords for fathers would be getting a cake and presents and family. He had none of the sort. Nathaniel was not a normal kid. 

Normal kids from normal households didn’t have fat lips from a backhand or a still healing, oozing, gooey mess of a burn on his shoulder oddly shaped like an iron. If someone were to ask him where it hurt, he might’ve replied with a tense ‘everywhere’.

He didn’t have anyone to coddle him like that, so he kept his mouth shut for once. 

He wasn’t going to be hurt anymore today, and he took solace in the fact.  
____________  
He sat uncomfortably rigid in the bus, squished awkwardly next to his mother, eyes drifting to look out of the window. He gnawed on his cheek, and held his bag on his lap, arms tightly wrapped around the cheap material. He could feel the tough metal of the gun his mother carried on his hip, it was uncomfortable but he wouldn't dare say a word. 

His heart still thrummed with anxiousness after the encounter he had with the bus driver a few minutes ago. 

“Keep your head down, Stephan” his mother whispered into his ear, sending goosebumps racing down his back. She pressed close to him as they boarded the bus, so close that he could feel the windbreaker material of his mother’s coat against his own knitted sweater. 

Stephan climbed the bus stairs, quickly swiping his card and stepping to the side, waiting for his mother, who was now a Johanna, to swipe her own bus pass. 

The gruff voice of the bus driver froze him dead in his tracks, eyes darting around only to find that there was practically no way out except for the doors he’d just walked through. He turned on his heel slowly, wide eyes meeting his mother’s slightly narrowed ones. 

“Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Stephan” the uniformed man said, giving him a small smile as Stephan nodded and his mother quickly climbed the rest of the steps and grabbed him by the arm.  
He didn’t even feel his mother nearly throw him into the seat as he breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn’t going to die at that exact moment, and that was enough for him.  
_______

The house he’d chosen in Millport might’ve been grand at one period in time, as grand as a town could be with nothing to do except sports or bingo. Neil was in one of the most inner rooms of the dilapidated house, feebly trying to block out the January cold. 

It was sleeting, the ground outside has been covered for the past three days. It was January, it was his birthday, and it was the first without his mother. He wouldn’t allow himself to feel pity for his situation. 

He continued on, trekking through the icy grass, his destination being Millport High School. He’d left one of the frosted pane glass windows propped open with his school copy of Basics of Calculus. It was the most use he'd gotten out of the book in all the months he had had it. 

His one mercy was the he wouldn’t freeze to death on his birthday, and he was fine with that.  
_______  
Neil sat on the edge of the roof, feet dangling as he looked out at the view. It wasn’t pretty by any means, mostly the other brick buildings of the university, but it was calming enough. He sat a little ways above the lights that shone down above the parking lot. It was full after being empty for so long during holiday break. He could feel the coldness of the brick through his sweats, and the wind blew through his hoodie easily, but he made no move to get up.

That was until he heard the distinctive drawl on Andrew’s voice behind him. 

“Let’s go junkie” Andrew mumbled, not needing to say anything else. Neil hopped off the edge of the roof, looking back at his bird’s eye view of Palmetto one last time for tonight.

Neil smiled softly.

His one mercy this year was that he wasn’t alone anymore. He was more thankful than words could ever describe.

**Author's Note:**

> 1) The line of German says Happy Birthday, but the sentence structure is probably super off so sorry to anyone that can actually understand it :)  
> 2)It snows in Arizona, i promise. Millport is right between Phoenix (where i was born) and Tuscon (where my mom was raised) and it used to snow all the time. :)  
> 3)Happy Birthday Neil Josten!


End file.
